Excited for the new season of Man vs. Wild

07Jan

Bear Grylls took a lot of grief from survivalists after the first season of Discovery Channel’s Man vs. Wild. Not so much because network bigwigs staged certain situations or forced the adventuresome Brit to use safety ropes, flotation devices, and other helps to mitigate the perils of his stunts. But because the producers did their best to hide these helps from the audience.

The ire was unfortunately directed at Grylls himself. He was called a fake, a liar, and even worse: a wuss. The formerly gun-shy Grylls got the point and took a stand, demanding the net do things his way from that point on. Second season episodes debuted with disclaimers about assistance and staged situations, and new cover-your-butt narration was dubbed back into first season episodes for reruns.

The fact that it’s taken Grylls so long to shake this “wussy” image is both unfortunate and ironic. Unfortunate because the show’s entire purpose was to demonstrate survival in certain situations (it makes sense then, that they’d either seek out or create these situations). It’s ironic because they don’t come much tougher than Bear Grylls.

Criticize his ridiculous pronunciations of “glacier” and “vitamins” or his disturbing propensity to shed his clothes at least once every episode, but Bear ain’t a wuss. There may be a crew standing by in case he gets hypothermia, but that’s Bear leaping into that icy water. There may be a cameraman filming him, but that’s Bear leaping over those gaping chasms, or eating a cow’s eye, or biting into a raw zebra carcass, or sleeping inside a dead camel.

Good stuff. Which is why I was delighted last night when I caught a teaser for the new season of Man vs. Wild, which begins next Wednesday at 9pm on Discovery. Apparently the show’s focus has expanded beyond survival basics to extreme adventure. Sounds awesome.

5 responses to “Excited for the new season of Man vs. Wild”

Glad to hear someone not so invested in how “real” TV is. I never will understand why people feel lied to when they realize t.v. is produced. If they really filmed Bear just surviving it would be boring and no one would watch it. So the network brings a snake out so Bear can bite its head off. Man vs. Wild is entertainment and I new that the first time I say it so I say to you Amen and I can’t wait to watch Bear needlessly risk injury just so I will be in front of the boob tube when a commercial comes on. Your pal the Envirocapitalist.

Thanks for stopping by, EnCap! Agreed- I don’t care who provided the snake, I just want to watch Bear eat it! I think part of the problem was that everybody was comparing Bear’s format to Les Stroud’s. I’m as big a Stroud fan as the next guy, but I realize the shows have completely different goals.

Without a doubt, Bear Grylls has earned all of my respect. He has proven that he is definitely “not a wuss” in his courageous atempts to educate us “the viewers” of possible survival or rescue in extreme situations he’s placed in each and every episode.

Grylls has “bravely” shown how we can have hope and optimism in these most hopeless conditions. Just keep your flintstone, knife, and parachute readily available. “I’m kidding”. He has even shown how to create a fire without the use of these tools and many other shows where he does not use his “chute” material for survival.

There’s no doubt that Bear Grylls knows a thing or two about survival, and if I was actually lost or stranded in the wilderness somewhere and could choose one person to be with me to help keep me alive, it would definitely be him. But people need to realize that his show (like 98% of television shows) is primarily meant for entertainment! Of course, most people who have seen an episode or two (or every episode, like myself) would probably agree that they have learned a thing or two from him, but the point is that you’re mainly watching the show because it’s entertaining, not because you’re taking notes with a tablet and a pen to remember for when you might climb Mount Everest later in your life. Bear Grylls has accomplished some incredible things in his life, much more than most of us could ever hope to even come close to doing. He enjoys being outdoors and passing on his survival techniques to us. He kills animals, not because he would starve to death if he didn’t, but because he’s showing us how to do it for ourselves if we ever needed to. His show could literally save lives simply from showing us what animals and plants are edible, and how to prepare them. If you were ever stranded somewhere and had to find, kill, and cook a turtle or an alligator, you’d be glad that you watched that episode of Man Vs. Wild and that Bear showed you how.